Pride Month – Page 2 – …on the B.L.

Worth a Read Yes
Length 320
Quick Review An overview of the transgender people’s history in the United States from about WWII to present day.

201906161373761393911192186 — Transgender History by Susan Stryker | Red Dress Dress | Straw Purse | Bracelets | Bow | Belt

I’m always hesitant about nonfiction books written by people who don’t personally understand what they are writing about, which is why I picked up Transgender History so enthusiastically. Susan Stryker is a scholar and a transsexual woman. The book is full of insight and history and emotional depth. At the root of this often politically charged topic are people. So often that fact is forgotten. Transgender PEOPLE live lives as full and complicated and emotional as anyone else.

It would be almost impossible to discuss trans* history and rights without having an understanding of key terms and phrases. Stryker takes 45 pages to define many important terms. This sounds super boring, but it was actually very interesting. Some terms are well known but many are not.

Transgender History by Susan Stryker | Red Dress Dress | Belt | Purse | Bow | Bracelets

There is so much information packed into 320 pages. Some of the highlights are the discussions about riots throughout American history and their impact on society and culture. Notably Cooper D-Nuts, Dewey’s, and Compton’s were huge points when several factors came together to create change on some level. The inclusion of excerpts from articles, letters, testimonies, research, and books helps to capture the spirit of the time, provide information from other experts, and give personal stories.

I had always wondered why I heard more about trans women than trans men. Transgender History gave me the answer. Trans men could often disappear into society living as they wanted to. Known as passing. Trans women did not share the same abilities and have been at a higher risk of violence. I also wondered where the unfortunate idea trans people are rapists came from. Sadly, that idea originated at a feminist convention with the trans woman Beth Elliott. As a feminist, this saddens me greatly. I still don’t understand why there are types of feminism which are exclusionary. (Mine is not.)

Transgender History by Susan Stryker | Dress | Purse | Belt | Bracelets | Bow

Fun facts I didn’t know but should have:

Ames was one of a handful of American cities and counties with trans anti-discrimination protections in 2016. Ames is my home town; so proud!
The DSM didn’t depathologize transgender people until the DSM V in 2013
HIV is common in poverty stricken trans communities because of sharing hormone needles.

So many notable trans people are mentioned throughout the pages. Sarah McBride, author of Tomorrow Will Be Different, is mentioned as the first trans person to speak at a televised national convention. Reed Erickson, a transgender male, did so much to further research and science for trans people.

Transgender History is misunderstood if it’s understood at all. There is so much I didn’t know and still don’t know. Stryker does an amazing job educating the reader without making them feel guilty or uneducated. If you are interested in learning about a deeply oppressed community, I highly suggest reading this book.

Memorable Quotes
“When people struggling against an injustice have no hope that anything will ever change, they use their strength to survive; when they think that their actions matter, that same strength becomes a force for positive change.”

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Title: Transgender History: The Roots of Today’s Revolution
Author: Susan Stryker
Publisher: Seal Press (Hachette Book Group)
Copyright: 2017
ISBN: 9781580056908

Transgender History | Dress | Belt | Purse | Bow

Worth a Read Most Definitely
Length 304
Quick Review Sarah McBride is a transgender woman active in politics living her life to the fullest. I was in happy and sad tears the whole book!

Tomorrow Will Be Better by Sarah McBride looking over the National Mall in D.C.

I believe change happens when people are moved by people’s stories. There is power in a story. Sarah McBride opens up in Tomorrow Will Be Better about her story as a trans woman, a person, a wife, and an advocate. People are more than one adjective; they’re many. Sarah is more than a trans woman. She is a woman with a beautiful, uplifting, and heartbreaking story. If you read this without being moved you’re a gargoyle. I was in happy/sad tears the entire book.

The book starts with a forward by Joe Biden, which is very touching.

Sarah McBride grew up in Delaware and is a “stateriot.” I just love that term because I feel a little bit like a stateriot for my home state: Iowa. She fell in love with politics at a young age and worked on the governor’s campaign before graduating high school. In college at American University, she won student president. Before her senior year of college, she came out to her campus as transgendered. The university embraced her for who she really is. To officially mark the birth of Sarah, she threw a party asking everyone to bring things to fill her brand new closet. (This is such a smart idea! A complete wardrobe change is expensive. Especially as a woman.) After college, she stayed in Washington D.C. working for trans and human rights. She fell in love with the man who would become her husband. Tomorrow Will Be Better is an apt title for a book full of hardship dripping in hope.

The book focuses on two major parts of Sarah’s life. The fight for trans rights in Delaware and her journey with her husband, Andrew.

Tomorrow Will Be Better by Sarah McBride | Dress | Heels | Hair Clips |

Sarah fought and helped pass the marriage equality bill in Delaware. In an unprecedented move a bill to include and protect trans people was passed a month after the marriage equality bill. Sarah was an integral part of passing that bill and bringing other trans people to Delaware’s Congress so their voices could be heard. I remember hearing about this in the news, and it was moving then.

Sarah and Andrew fell in love during her senior year at AU after meeting at a White House dinner. They dated for a year, when they found out Andrew had cancer. Sarah stood by and helped him through the journey. It is a heartbreaking story proving the power of love.

More than anything, I appreciated Sarah’s honesty and her voice in Tomorrow Will Be Better. Being a white, trans woman is a unique perspective. She went from being perceived as a white man with all the privileges that implies to living as her true self, a woman. The experience was incredibly jarring, “I never realized just how disempowering, unsafe, and unsettling it would feel to have a stranger assume they were entitled to comment on my appearance or my body.” The implications of being a woman in the world and being a trans woman in the world are complicated and ultimately dangerous. Transphobia combined with toxic masculinity are dangerous.

Trans rights are incredibly misunderstood if they’re understood at all. For the people who do accept people for who they are, it can come as a surprise the absolute lack of right trans people have. For the people who don’t accept them, it’s (hopefully) from a lack of education. Sarah explains the hurdles trans people face and how it compounds when they are not accepted, a minority, in poverty, etc. Sarah explains so many aspects of the trans experience without anger or judgement. She is patient and kind with a general attitude and hope that Tomorrow Will Be Better. She touches on privilege, names, documentation, medical awareness, and so much more.

This is an incredible story. Sarah McBride is an inspiration. I highly recommend the beautiful memoir, Tomorrow Will Be Better, to anyone who wants to learn, feel, and strive for hope.

Memorable Quotes
“”If we cannot change our college, then how can we expect to change our country.””
“There is a unique kind of pain in being unseen.”
“Somehow society manages to treat women like both a delicate infant and a sexualized idol in the same moment.”
“I felt a moral responsibility to use that privilege and those relationships to subvert the power of prejudice.”
“For many of us [trans people], though, we are reluctant to give out that information because it often becomes weaponized against us, invoked instead of our chosen name to ignore and deny our gender identity.”

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Title: Tomorrow Will Be Better
Author: Sarah McBride
Publisher: Three Rivers Press (Penguin Random House)
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9781524761486

Tag: Pride Month

Transgender History by Susan Stryker

Tomorrow Will Be Different by Sarah McBride